Council’s failure to collect TSMs was due to ‘internal oversight’

The RSH has been publishing consumer standard judgements since July, either from its planned inspection programme or previous responsive engagement. 

The TSMs, which are regulated via the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard, are a set of 22 measures that cover, among other themes, the safety and condition of homes, as well as engagement with and treatment of residents. 

Of those, 12 must be collected via perception surveys from residents. 

However, in the regulator’s first round of consumer standards judgements in July, it emerged that Guildford, which owns around 5,200 council homes, had failed to collect TSMs. 

“Our judgement is that there are serious failings in how Guildford BC [Borough Council] is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in our safety and quality standard and our Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard,” the regulator said.

The RSH began responsive engagement with the council in December 2023 after it self-referred over issues within its housing service that included “potentially unnecessary repairs being carried out to tenants’ homes”.

“During the period of our engagement, Guildford investigated the issues further, which led to it identifying additional concerns relating to its statutory landlord health and safety compliance and its failure to collect and report the TSMs,” the judgement said. 

Along with several fire, electrical and asbestos safety failures, the council told the regulator it had not collected TSM data for 2023-24 and was “unable to explain the reasons” for this failure. 

“As a result, tenants are not supported to effectively scrutinise Guildford BC’s performance in delivering landlord services,” the RSH concluded. 

When asked by Inside Housing why the data was not collected, the council said: “The failure to complete tenant satisfaction measure surveys was due to an internal oversight.  

“As soon as we became aware, we made it part of our self-referral to the Regulator of Social Housing. Acuity, a leading market research company, has since been engaged and the first round of tenant surveys has been completed.”

It emerged in another regulatory judgement this month that Castle Point Borough Council also failed to collect TSMs. 

The RSH concluded there are “serious failings” in how Castle Point is delivering the outcomes of the consumer standards and that “significant improvement is needed, specifically in relation to outcomes in the transparency, influence and accountability standard”.

The regulator said it found out about the TSM failure through its routine engagement with Castle Point, which owns around 1,500 council homes. 

According to the judgement, the council said it failed to collect the data “due to resourcing pressures at the time, which meant its focus instead had been on the delivery of core housing services”.

The RSH said both councils are engaging with it and working to address the issues that led to their situations. 

Dave Blackwell, leader of Castle Point Council, said: “The council has accepted the findings of the regulator in the regulatory judgment, which have arisen from the delay in the submission of the TSM data in time for 2023-24.

“We would like to apologise to our residents for this error. The council will continue to work with its tenants, the regulator and our partners to provide the best housing service possible.”